The long-term partner of rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns has revealed how she turned to drugs to beat a debilitating eating disorder and become a better parent.
Kate Kendall said she had been battling bulimia for almost three decades but finally overcame the disorder during the nation’s Covid lockdown after a doctor issued her a prescription for medicinal cannabis.
‘It softened the whole experience,’ she told The Weekend n Magazine.
‘I had tried to treat [the disorder] many times before with a lot of talk therapy and I only ever got so far.’
The Sydney yoga instructor – who has been with Johns since 2016 – said she was determined to conquer the devastating disease so she could be a better role model for the couple’s six-year-old daughter, Alice.
‘It had become really painful for me because she was a few years old (at the time) and I really started to become concerned about what I was modelling for her as a parent.’
The 43-year-old said she used the drug for six months as part of a holistic 12-step program overseen by an eating disorder coach and dietician.
The regimen involved her consuming drops of cannabis oil orally before dinner each night to help overcome the anxiety she experienced while eating.
‘I’d take it an hour before eating, and just sit with it and let it come over me and I’d relax – the cannabis softened the anxiety and the overall experience,’ she told the magazine.
‘I had trouble sitting with that feeling of fullness, which is why I tended to restrict a lot.
‘I had a session with a doctor who was prescribing marijuana as I’d heard that it could help release the tension.
‘It relaxed my ‘over controller’ and my body felt more at ease and more welcoming to food; more OK with saying yes to the meal as opposed to freaking out, restricting or rejecting it.’
More than a million prescriptions for medicinal cannabis have been written since they were first legalised in in 2016 – and Kendall hasn’t discounted seeking another if the circumstances call for it in the future.
‘I now have a relaxed experience with food most of the time and I don’t feel the need to use it,’ Kendall said.
‘But maybe that’ll change, maybe I’ll call upon that ally again at some point. It definitely helped me get through a very challenging time.’
Her partner Johns, an ex-NRL legend for Newcastle, NSW and , has also been a vocal advocate for the drug, saying it helps him handle the ongoing physical ravages he endures after more than 300 games of top-flight footy.
It also helped him control the seizures he has experienced since he was diagnosed with frontal lobe epilepsy in 2016.
‘For me, I’ve been quite vocal on it because it’s deadset changed my life, I went on it four of five years ago because of the seizures I developed, which may have contributed from the concussions,’ John has said on Wide World of Sports’ Immortal Behaviour.
‘Since I’ve been taking it, I’m seizure free, but I’m still taking a traditional medication for that but I’m as clear as I’ve ever been.
‘Physically for my body, I don’t take anti-inflammatories anymore and I don’t take pain killers which, with my personality, I shouldn’t have pain killers in the house.
‘For me it’s been a game changer, I surf sometimes three, four hours a day – I wake up and there’s no inflammation, it takes away all the inflammation.’
‘Obviously after coming home from calling footy, I would be wired. I used to have sleeping tablets to put me to sleep, but I haven’t had a sleeping tablet in those 18 months.
‘I read a lot but sometimes my mind can wander. Now my concentration is better. And my partner Kate says I am calmer.’
Johns has also credited his partner with introducing him to yoga, saying the discipline has kept him focussed and helped his mental health.
‘I always thought yoga was for girls but now I wish I’d done more of it when I was playing. Physically it’s great for my body, especially with all the injuries I’ve had, but mentally it’s even better — it really clears my mind,’ he said.
‘It keeps me in check too. If I know I’m doing yoga in the morning I behave myself the night before — within reason.’